Southern Or wrote:I already emailed him. They stopped making the 8 channel and he won't be restocking. I have three four channel controllers, 4 Wfly 8 channel "2.4, 75mHz, 72mHz, ect controllers that don't actually work on FM (good wast of money) and 3 more 6 channel 75s on the way. This is a fine but I still need the 2 extra channels.

There are several Futaba 9c radios on Ebay right now but I see no 75Mhz RF plug-ins just 72Mhz and 2.4Ghz ones. But, every so often a 75MHz RF module does pop up on Ebay.

Other than that I'm out of ideas - good luck - take heart, it can be done with perseverance.

Dan

"By doing just a little every day you can gradually let the task completely overcome you." - Wil Baden

Either of these are designed to take JR style plug in modules, but modellers have used other makes (e.g. Hitec, Futaba) of modules with pinout conversion boards. I'd recommend trying to source a synthesized module, as correct crystals are getting difficult to source now.

Manufacturers try and tie you in to their product by mucking about with pinouts and case dimensions, but you can build a work around if you're handy with a soldering iron and don't mind tinkering.

The pinout for different modules can usually be found by googling. Four pins are the important ones

+v-vppm out aerialOne thing I would add is that the laws governing R/C modification in the U.S appear to be a little more draconian than here in the UK. However if the modification looks well done, it's unlikely anyone would know better!

Off topic of my RC woes, but has anyone used epoxy sculpt for boo boos? I my drill jumped and made a nice gouge. So far it has worked, but I'm finding out that after it's set it's harder then the hull making sanding difficult. I wound up using a rounded micro file to get it level. Also, no one carries silicone epoxy that I can find locally so I'm thinking of vinyl epoxy, "general" epoxy (supposed to adhere to almost anything), marine epoxy, and last but not least, Harvey's epoxy putty tube stick. I have a lot more experience with Harvey's then anything else. This is needed to bind the water tight deck parts to the hull, so it'll need to bind to two types of material and create a water tight seal.

I'm still working on the hull to get it ready for the Water tight "decks" but I've been reading that the top half is better suited to having bulkheads installed on it to keep it from deforming in the sun. Since it'll be black thats sort of a big problem. I'm thinking of using old school standard round brass stock? I'm also wondering if the bottom could benefit from it too. I'm getting closer to doing some major cuts which makes me wonder how the hull will respond. I know from experience that plastic is prone to getting torqued. These major cuts are for the forward retractible dive planes and the conning tower, and they aren't small holes. So I'm wondering, should I reinforce the hull sections before or after I begin cutting? I'd really hate to warp it in the process of building it. My tricks for preventing this on my smaller boats defiantly won't scale up.

I'm not worried about the extra weight of the brass since the kit came with something like 10-15lbs of lead sheet and shot ballast, plus a lead acid battery. Completed boat weight is around 50 pounds.

For nicks and gouges I find polyester fillers used for car body repair much easier to work with and they sand and spread better.

My experience with epoxy fillers is that they're waterproof and strong, but take a lot longer to dry and tend to be trickier to work with. polyester fillers tend to absorb water over time, however once painted over, they tend to seal more than adequately for model use.

For bulkheads to help the hull keep its shape, brass is somewhat extreme. Epoxy glass sheet should be more than sufficient and will be very much lighter, an important consideration if they're positioned high in the boat.

I've got a lot of model (plastic) experience with the epoxy sculpt so I have a lot of it on hand and its in my comfort zone. From what I've been reading and seeing about this typhoon and even the one I have now, it needs bracing. I'm not thinking full on bulkheads (since the water proof deck would make that hard anyways), but just a rod with baseplates every so far to keep it from deforming. I think a few supports placed as close to the waterline as possible on the top hull wouldn't hurt the balance to much and from the photos of the kit in the water that I've seen, the "waterline" seems open to debate. On the bottom it won't matter at all since I can just remove however many ounces I just added.

At any rate I'll probably try to have the hulls joining below the waterline so it shouldn't be an issue. What would suck is if the hull deformed anyways and bent the rods. I'm thinking I might need to do this before I cut the holes for the bow planes and conning tower.

Also, I went a little overboard and got titanium self punching bits. Drill hasn't ran away since. Oh, before I forget, anyone know of a place that I can get quality drill bits from online in metric? This over under size conversion isn't working and it'd save me a lot of time from filing up to the correct size.

Thanks, thats a life saver. I also got a T9CAP at 72mHz but I have a few futaba 75mHz modules coming. I'm pretty sure I paid to much, but since I have modules coming I decided to email Tony to see if he can cannibalize a 75mHz module and make a 40mHz F-14 work. In theory if the chip isn't tied into the frequency, its just a matter of replacing the modulator components, but my experience is in video and sound broadcast so I worked with MF and UHF. VHF is just the gap in the middle.